On Monday, May 29th, the Mosaic Environmental Health and Safety Expo held a youth education session for approximately 250 high school students from Churchbridge, Langenburg, and Esterhazy schools at the SN Boreen Centre in Esterhazy.
Approximately 1,500 Mosaic employees and embedded contractors attended the event as well over its 3 day duration (May 30-June 1).
The Saskatchewan Mining Association presented in the morning of May 29th regarding careers in mining.
Lynn Carter, Education Outreach Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Mining Association (SMA), spoke at the Environmental Health and Safety Expo in the morning session.
Carter said, “We looked at over 120 careers available in many different commodities. We looked at the general geology of the province and where the critical minerals are located in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan has 23 of the 31 critical minerals that were defined by the Canadian government in 2021. There’s all sorts of careers in mining available in the province. We also talked about the products that wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have mining”.
Saskatchewan has the opportunity to contribute to meeting the global demand for critical minerals including potash, uranium, helium, lithium, copper, zinc, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements.
The theme of the event was Mental Health and Psychological Wellness. The keynote speaker Anthony McLean provided an engaging dialogue to the students in the afternoon. McLean has delivered hundreds of inspiring talks across the world, taking the stage at conferences, colleges, and corporate events. McLean has been featured in The Globe and Mail and on CBC News and Breakfast Television. He is currently writing his first book, Fire Up Your Mental Health!
Students were invited to explore over 30 vendor booths related to health, safety and the Mosaic workplace.
Rachel Nordquist, Change Management Lead with Mosaic mentioned that the event is held yearly in May. The committee meets monthly beginning in September and eventually meets weekly when the event nears. Nordquist stated, “The Expo Committee volunteers their time outside of their regular duties. Committee members break into sub-committees, including Advertising, Event supplies/Door Prizes, Food Vendors, Audio/visual, Booth Vendors and Keynote Speaker. We work with a budget and theme that our Executive Sponsor(s) set in advance”.
This year’s Executive Sponsors is Dustin Maksymchuk, General Manager, Esterhazy and the Primary Sponsor is James Ferstl, Senior Manager Health & Safety.
This year’s planning committee includes Jason Smith, Dawn Keller, Jayme Varga, Kim Apland, Laci Denbrok, Rachel Nordquist, Todd Shire, Sean Fortin, Kristy Clay, Ward Nussbaumer and a representative from Motion Canada, Mike Sather.
This event first started in 2018 and was delayed for a few years, returning in 2022 with an in-person event.
When asked about the purpose of the event, Nordquist mentioned, “Since our event began in 2018, we have brought employees and community members together to network and learn about the latest trends in Environmental health and safety. Past years we have focused on physical safety, but our commitment to employee safety extends beyond risk reduction and physical health. We also believe it is important to manage overall well-being. This year, our expo theme is focused on mental health and wellness. Psychological health affects how we think, feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices at work and at home”.
“Mosaic recognizes that to be our best, we must not only look at workplace factors, but also other factors outside of work. Therefore, we are dedicated to supporting the communities in which we live and work, as well as promote ourselves as an employer that makes not only physical, but mental health a priority.”
In past years, the Mosaic expo aimed to reach employees, contractors, and community members. This year, the planning committee shifted their focus to the surrounding community high schools.
Rachel Nordquist explained, “We will not be providing a community session this year. The decision to shift from community to youth was purely to diversify and include a demographic we have not yet reached since the expo has been running”.
There were over 30 vendor booths in attendance ranging from STARS, Cando Rail, United Rentals, Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service, Canada Life, Motion Canada, Milwaukee, GFL Environmental, Saskatchewan Industrial & Mining Suppliers Association Inc, Noble Construction, TOPA Contracting, Crete-Tek Contracting, Virgin Pulse, SECON Group of Companies, and many more. There were also a handful of internal Mosaic booths as well such as the Medical and Mine Rescue Teams.
Rachel added, “Vendor booths will highlight the products and services available/applicable to our industry and provide opportunities for participants to take part in an activity centered around Mosaic’s ‘9 Life Saving Rules’. The 9 Life Saving Rules are: Mobile Equipment and Driving Safety, Working From Heights, Lockout/Tagout, Lifting Operation, Confined Space Entry, Equipment Safeguarding and Barricading, Electrical Safety, Geotechnical, Ground Control and Stability, Hazardous Chemicals and Explosives”.
Food trucks were on site providing breakfast and lunch to students and employees throughout the week. The food trucks included Lizzie’s Prairie Fields Eatery, Pro BBQ, Prairie Smoke & Spice BBQ, El Tropezon Mex/Can and Schmitty’s Smoked Meats and Catering.
Rae Carlson hosted a simulation station at the expo and spoke about the program he showcased that allowed students to prepare for real-world work. The station allowed students to sit in a chair that vibrated and moved during operation, and required the student to move the various gears to operate the equipment, in an effort to simulate operating heavy-duty equipment.
When asked about the purpose of the simulation, Rae said, “Number one, to get people used to a piece of equipment before they actually hop on the equipment, and it takes the fear factor out of a brand new operator hopping into a $500,000 – $1 million piece of equipment. New operators are scared that they’re going to break it and they don’t want to operate it the wrong way. They can use this program as a platform to be able to get to a comfortable level of operating a big piece of equipment. It also gives them muscle memory, between the joysticks, the steering wheel and the foot controls”.
There are about 10 pieces of equipment that Mosaic is looking at right now to help train employees on equipment such as a skid steer, forklift, tracko, backhoe, grader, front end loader, dozer, and the crane; there is a program for each piece of equipment.
Speaking about the simulation device, Holden Aberhart, a grade 10 student from Langenburg Central School, said, “I thought it was really interesting because it is very realistic and it helps you learn to multitask and be able to drive machinery”.
Tracy Huckell, current Vice-principal of Esterhazy High School (next year she will be the EHS principal), talked about what an event like this expo does to help students in the area.
“Job-wise, it helps students be more aware of all the different careers in our area, mining, the trades and the industry. We wanted to bring the kids because the event is very career based and that’s important to us. The event achieves lots of outcomes from the Ministry of Education where we’re trying to get kids to see all the possible careers that are out in the world that they don’t even know about, nevermind in their own backyard. Do all the kids even know we are the potash capital of the world? [The speaker talked about the Canpotex run], everybody hears that, but do kids actually know what that means? There was a lot of good information that they would probably hear on the news or hear even their parents or community people speaking about, and now the students heard a bit of an explanation behind that.”
EHS Administrator Huckell mentioned she was thankful to see the participation and interaction between the students and those involved in the industry.
“The kids really, I think, enjoyed all of the events. I saw them very engaged; especially with the interactive vendors. The students were able to make connections for careers which is so important; maybe one of their employers is actually in the room, and that’s a connection that this event helped make happen.”
She added, “We really appreciate the planning and work that went into creating this fabulous opportunity for our students. Community partnerships are very important to us and it’s another reminder of the wonderful support we receive from Mosaic”.